can I modify a material?

Gnaws

I'd like to add stripes to create a jacket like the attached image.

I got as far as opening an image using "Layered Image Editor..." , which seems to create a temporary PNG somewhere, but then I got frightened that I'd mess up the existing .MTL.

Pls advise.

Richard Haseltine

That's getting a bit ahead, and probably not the ideal tool. What you need is to create a new texture with stripes - and for that you need a set of stripes that line up with the mapping of the model. You could open one of the existing maps in an image editor and use that to guide the plaement of the stripes, then either save the stripes layer alone as a new map and overlay it with the Layered Image Editor or save out a whole new map and apply it in place of the existing one through the Surfaces pane - just remember that if you use any part of the existing map in your own it is for your own use only, you can't share it with others.

Gnaws

Richard Haseltine said:

That's getting a bit ahead, and probably not the ideal tool. .....

Making a new texture from an existing texture is no problem.    The existing textures actually have the UVs already laid out.   I just want to know if this is a scalable solution as DAZ seems to put files in a labyrinth of places, and if I overwrite one without a .duf counterpart (whatever that is), will completely whack out that entire asset.

Is it short-sighted to assume I can just back up the existing PNG, create a new one, then replace it again if things go belly up?

Lastly, if I really mess it up, can I just reload the whole mess with Install Mgr?

Understood about not sharing.   The thought of sharing didn't even occur to me.

Many thanks as always Richard.

LosingSignal

You should be able to delete the original through DIM and redownload it if things really go south, yeah.  Whenever I've messed with textures, though, I make a copy of the given image I need to edit on my desktop.  You should be able to edit the crap out of that one with no worries.  When you want to load it in, go to the Surfaces tab and put the new Desktop version in the Base Color map square in place of the old one.  One thing about this method, though, I find I have to change the name of the file every time I make an edit, or it can be a real pain to get the new version of the texture to show up in the Viewport.

Finding the textures, that can be tough, unless you've got Install Manager.  Open that guy up, go to the Installed tab and search for the product you're editing.  Hit the arrow on the far right hand side of the item and click on Show Installed Files...  That will give you a pop up showing every file that product loaded onto your system and exactly where it is.

Richard Haseltine

The .duf file is for loading/applying content. Make a copy of the image file, edit that, aply it through the Surfaces pane, save a Materials preset (File>Save As) for easy application in future.

Chezjuan

LosingSignal said:

Finding the textures, that can be tough, unless you've got Install Manager.  Open that guy up, go to the Installed tab and search for the product you're editing.  Hit the arrow on the far right hand side of the item and click on Show Installed Files...  That will give you a pop up showing every file that product loaded onto your system and exactly where it is.

For most items, I just load the asset that has the texture I want to use, go to the Surfaces tab, click on the editor tab, and click on the item (or the particular item surface). Then I click the image in Base Color and select "Browse." That opens the "open" dialog for the folder in which the texture is stored. Then I generally right-click the texture file, select "Open With" and my photo editing software. 

When I'm done editing, I save it in a folder I made in My Library that contains all my personal textures. 

Gnaws

LosingSignal said:

You should be able to delete the original through DIM and redownload it if things really go south, yeah.  ....

Thanks, LosingSignal.    Excellent ideas.

Gnaws

Chezjuan said:

LosingSignal said:

For most items, I just load the asset that has the texture I want to use, go to the Surfaces tab, click on the editor tab, and click on the item (or the particular item surface). Then I click the image in Base Color and select "Browse." That opens the "open" dialog for the folder in which the texture is stored. Then I generally right-click the texture file, select "Open With" and my photo editing software. 

Flippin BRILLIANT!   And (relatively) super easy.   

Thank you, Chezjuan!!!